A COMPREHENSIVE CHECK-UP
Regular visits to the doctor for people and annual service calls for cars are commonplace in our lives. With the entire world being now confined to their homes in the wake of the corona virus pandemic and life being stripped off everything but the bare essentials, it is time for one and all to evaluate their lives and undertake an overall check-up.
Defeating the pandemic involves being fastidious with all the social distancing measures that have been enforced/recommended to decrease the spread of the virus, break the chain and flatten the curve of the pandemic. It definitely is not easy for those who are sick with the virus and need to be quarantined. But for others, it is a good idea to evaluate the necessity of the many social commitments we have forced upon ourselves in our routine lives. How many of the gatherings that we participate in as a routine are indeed beneficial? Do our get-togethers help or hurt? To what extent can they be modified to bring more benefit? For those who had no time for their families, now is a time to relish time with family and prioritize the same in the future.
Equally important is to evaluate our personal lives. With no cure and no vaccine for the virus yet, it becomes all the more important to have the immunity in place to counter the virus. Immunity is boosted by good sleep, nutritious food, supplements, exercise and having time set apart every day for prayer and meditation. Are these built into our patterns of life? Avoiding stress has been linked to good health. Instead of going crazy trying to figure out what to do with all the excess time that man now has, it would be a good idea to build good patterns that incorporate each of these above into our lives, so that once life resumes, it would be healthier.
These are difficult times for countries and for people. Businesses have shut down, countless have lost their jobs and many live in uncertainty. While praying for the pandemic to come to a quick end, and it will, it is also time for societies to evaluate the relevance of their pet projects. A number of socialist-liberal movements have taken hold in our societies around the world, that base themselves on one cardinal philosophy- rejection of the authority of God and the biblical truths. These social projects are peddled by vested interests, doled out to unsuspecting millions and enforced upon children and adults alike when times are prosperous and there is plenty of money to go around. It takes an international crisis for people to come to their senses and turn to the living God and spit out these God-defying philosophies, which neither give you hope in a crisis nor have the resources now to continue to take people for a ride.
And at an individual level, if this won’t bring man to God, nothing will. When one faces a disease like this, the prospect of death is real. If there is one thing man needs to reflect upon, it is the certainty of death and what lies beyond. Preparing for death is preparing for eternal life. It means to live life as though death will certainly arrive and prioritizing our decisions in such a way that we reject that which is sinful and worldly and deliberately choose that which is godly, fixing our eyes on that which is unseen and eternal.
‘For everything in the world- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does- comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever’ (1 John 2:16,17)
In a world where social media only multiplies worldliness, we see an unabashed drive to satisfy every possible craving, a desire to possess everything that others have and a smug pride that is eager to demonstrate man’s superiority over others. Nothing will remain as John says except for a soul that seeks to honor God in humility and brokenness. The pandemic will pass, and it will in quick time, but something else will certainly kill all men and women and woeful is the one who is not prepared.
May this time of suffering be also a time of reflection, and a comprehensive check-up to put one’s life in order.
